Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

Imagine being charged with negotiating the relaunch of a multibillion-dollar industry, which employs thousands of workers, in the middle of a pandemic. Things have been very contentious in recent weeks between you and the union representing your most prominent group of employees. Finally, though, you have a productive…Read more...

The Premier League returned to action this afternoon at Villa Park with Aston Villa hosting Sheffield United. While VAR has been riling fans and media alike most of the season, today it was goal-line technology’s turn to provide confusion, mystery, and vitriol.Read more...

Colin Kaepernick could get a chance to make a league roster this season.Read more...

The multiple and concurrent method of competitions in world soccer was always going to be a challenge to restart after the coronavirus shutdown. European competitions, i.e. the Champions League and Europa League, had the added challenge of dealing with multiple restrictions on safety and travel across European…Read more...

Leave it to Nicholas Kyrgios, the bad boy of tennis, to suddenly become the voice of reason.

By now, you’re of course familiar with the Supreme Court’s holding in Bostock v. Clayton County yesterday, which held that LGBTQ people cannot be fired (or be subject to any other adverse employment action) merely for being gay or transgender. It’s worth noting that rarely has the Supreme Court of the United States…Read more...

It’s hard to believe that early on in the Bundesliga season, there was actual mystery as to who would win the title. Maybe that’s partly due to 2020’s jet-fueled, monkey-navigated car crash into the darkest abyss, making September and October seem an archaeological dig ago. But in the fall, each of RB Leipzig,…Read more...

Hard as it may be to believe, what with everyone being stuck inside all the time these days, but summer is just around the corner. With warmer weather comes new opportunities to take your workouts outdoors (as long as you’re doing so safely and with a mask) and there’s no better way to make it happen than to take up…Read more...

NASCAR driver Kyle Weatherman and his team tried to make a statement on Sunday when they debuted a “Blue Lives Matter”-themed car at a race in Homestead, Fla.

A resurgence of COVID-19 could burst the “bubble” for pro sports.

Last month, Brett Favre found himself tied to a scandal in which $1.1 million meant for needy families in Mississippi instead wound up in the bank account of the Hall of Fame quarterback in exchange for one public service announcement and three speeches he never made.

In a 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court decided today that federal civil rights law protects LBGTQ workers from discrimination.Read more...

Ohio State doesn’t give a…Read more...

Throughout its history, boxing and gangsters have fit together like, well, a fist in a glove.

What last night’s underwhelming (and that’s being kind) and uninspired 30 for 30 on the 1998 Home Run race tried to capture was that baseball would have been in the toilet without it. It’s a narrative that Bud Selig tried to push to do himself credit, then shit all over to also do himself credit, and now everyone is…Read more...

Change isn’t just coming, it’s here. NASCAR will no longer allow displays of the Confederate flag. The NFL is proclaiming that Black Lives Matter. U.S. Soccer repealed its anthem policy.

Jerry Jones loves to talk. He lives for the spotlight. It’s impossible to discuss the Dallas Cowboys without mentioning his name.Read more...

It’s easy to want to pooh-pooh Kyrie Irving.

Last night, in a quite similar fashion to George Harrison’s had-it-ness with Paul McCartney in the Beatles’ final days, the MLBPA told the owners and world that the owners are going to install a season they want anyway, so they might as well get on with it. Not really that much different than George’s, “Okay, well, I…Read more...

You usually celebrate Father’s Day eating lunch at a restaurant, getting the extended family together for a barbeque or traveling for the weekend just to say hi to dad. This Father’s Day will be very different for myriad reasons. Whether or not you’re with dear ol dad, Deadspin has compiled a gift guide that could…Read more...

A deadly disease sweeping the land. Armed thugs in the streets keeping order amid an angry populace. An economy on the verge of collapse. At the helm of this once mighty superpower is a depraved, narcissistic megalomaniac who lacks even the most basic skills of governing. His answer to keep the masses mollified: Bring…Read more...

The Deadspin Sports Quarantine Nintendo Club, so far, has covered hockey, football, baseball, basketball, golf, skiing, soccer, volleyball, and tennis. But this week was a reminder of another sport that I had not yet revisited in 8-bit form.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) announced he would draft legislation in Congress requiring that U.S. Soccer players stand for the national anthem. This is exactly the type of leadership needed in this country, especially since there’s nothing of public interest going on, like a nationwide uprising to end police brutality…Read more...

In between showing the world that only a chosen few can pull off a Panama hat, critiquing his fans’ form, or calling for major changes within his sport, Roger Federer has been recovering/rehabbing from arthroscopic surgery on his right knee. It was the injury that ruined his Australian Open run (with just a little…Read more...

MLB owners have sucked up almost all of the oxygen for those trying to be greedy shits, so you might not have known MLS owners attempted a lot of the same stuff. They went even one step further than their MLB counterparts, threatening to lockout MLS players during a pandemic, which would have had the small side-effect…Read more...

The NHL is trying to appear like it’s finally woke and boy is it awkward.Read more...

The connection between the NFL and the U.S. Military is now a given for pretty much every football fan and most non-football fans as well. As well as the overt displays before games, the ceremonies for soldiers, the constant ads and whatever else, there’s the more subtle camouflage team gear, the war-terminology used…Read more...

You know who doesn’t need any more lethal weaponry at their disposal? America’s killer cops, that’s who. And I’m not just talking about guns.

Youth sports have transformed in front of our very eyes.Read more...

TaoTronics SoundSurge 46 | $70 | Amazon | Clip coupon on page

Parents and children. Teachers and students. Owners and pets.

There’s a prevailing line of thought right now in the public discourse: baseball, as a sport, is in grave trouble if Major League Baseball doesn’t figure out how to have a 2020 season.Read more...

On Sunday afternoon, I sat down to watch the only live sport on TV… NASCAR. I wouldn’t call myself a fan, but if there was ever a time to get into stock car racing, maybe it’s during a time when virtually every other league is dormant.Read more...

Let’s see how woke the NFL really is.Read more...

Remember The Late Shift, the early HBO original movie that chronicled the fight over The Tonight Show chair between Jay Leno and David Letterman? Both men battled for the show upon news of Johnny Carson’s retirement. In one scene, Leno, feeling the show slip away from him and also feeling like he’s the nice guy who…Read more...

It’s a bit overwhelming when you consider the scale of protests against police brutality and institutional and societal racism across the globe we’re seeing. There have been massive demonstrations in London, Brussels, Rome, Paris, Tokyo, New Zealand Ghana, South Africa,, and many other places.

This morning saw Major League Baseball continue its negotiating policy of “If We Offer Up The Same Shit But In A Different Box, Do You Think They’ll Notice?”

You people are weird.

The NFL says it is sorry.Read more...

San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich has never had a problem expressing himself. On the sidelines, and outside the lines, his words are honest and blunt. He doesn’t care what you think, but his personality carries enough weight for people to at least listen.

Dabo Swinney doesn’t get it. Nor does he want to.Read more...

As Bayern Munich’s uncompromising, methodical, and callous march to their 8th consecutive Bundesliga title continued yesterday with a 4-2 win over Bayer Leverkusen. It was highlighted by their geriatric duo. Thirty-year-old Thomas Muller broke the Bundesliga record for assists with his 20th (this season has seen…Read more...

When I was very young, Kurt Thomas came to visit my gymnastics club in Rockford, Ill. I’m not sure if I was aware of who he was at the time, but the excitement in the week leading up to his arrival was as if The Beatles were coming to town. Or, at that time, maybe Rick Springfield or Duran Duran.

The international uprising in response to George Floyd’s murder, police brutally beating protesters in every city and backlash from NFL players suddenly has Roger Goodell, NFL owners, executives, and coaches racing to see who can raise the Black Lives Matter Fists in the air the highest. Responses have ranged from…Read more...

This was a week full of bad news. Police beat up peaceful protestors from coast to coast after the murder of George Floyd. A global pandemic continued to rage while sports somehow got closer to returning, even as athletes tested positive for coronavirus.Read more...

Black quarterbacks in the NFL have been vocal this week on the recent injustices that have sparked protests across the country.

Roger Goodell’s video statement on Friday afternoon — where he admits the league was wrong for not listening to players who peacefully protested to raise awareness of police brutality and violence against the black community — represents a significant change. But it’s not enough.Read more...

As the epicenter of America’s COVID-19 pandemic moves to places like Alabama, there are rising concerns about what’s in store for football programs as players pack up for a return to campus.Read more...

Has the Sunshine State has hit the basketball jackpot?

The NBA is getting ready to come back in Florida. So, too, is MLS. And now it looks like the WNBA is headed there, as well. Meanwhile, whether or not the Sunshine State is undercounting COVID-19 deaths, the state’s official word is that Thursday was the day with the most confirmed coronavirus cases there, 1,419.